TROY, N.Y. – Thanks to a loss by St. Joseph's College (L.I.) at the hands of Farmingdale State College on Tuesday, the Mount Saint Mary College women's basketball team (9-14, 4-7 Skyline) clinched a spot in the Skyline Conference Championship tournament despite dropping an exciting matchup Tuesday evening at The Sage Colleges (17-5, 9-2 Skyline) by a score of 56-55.
The Knights locked up the No. 4 seed in the conference with a 4-7 record. SUNY College at Old Westbury sits in fifth at 3-8, but the Knights hold the tiebreaker over the Panthers after sweeping the season series. St. Joe's loss to Farmingdale State dropped it to 2-9 against the Skyline with just one game remaining, keeping the Golden Eagles out of the hunt.
The Knights had an exhilarating matchup with the Skyline's second-place team on Tuesday, as the game came down to the wire. The Knights trailed by as many as 10 points at 33-23 with 13:53 left in the game. A quick eight-point spurt got the Knights back within two, but a three by Frankie Pearson halted the run and put Sage back up by five. Senior forward
Natalie Candarelli (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.) then hit a layup, sophomore guard
Marisa Delzio (Brewster, N.Y.) made another to leave the Knights down, 36-35, with 10:53 to go.
Genevieve Schoff hit a jumper to give the Gators another three-point lead, but freshman forward
Bridget Kelly (Farmington, Conn.) followed with a layup. After the Knights got the ball back, Delzio hit from three-point range to put the Knights up, 40-38. Sara Tironi tied the game for Sage on a layup, but Scicutella came right back down the court and nailed a three to put the Knights up, 43-40.
Sage turned it around to score five straight points, but the Knights tied it again on a jumper by Candarelli. Megan Bowman then hit a jumper to get Sage back out into the lead, but Candarelli converted a three-point play to put the Knights up by one. Tironi sank a layup on the next play, but Scicutella hit another from long-range to put the Knights up by two. Candarelli then made another layup to give the Knights a 53-49 lead with 3:29 on the clock.
Tironi later drew a foul, but made only one-of-two shots to cut the deficit to three. Amie Jefferson grabbed the offensive rebound, and was able to score to drop the Knight lead to just one. Bowman was fouled on the Gators' next possession, and made both attempts to give the home team a one-point advantage with 1:31 to play. Bowman then stole the ball and made a layup on a fast break to put Sage up, 56-53.
Delzio was able to hit a jumper on the Knights' next possession to leave them down one with 44 seconds to play. The Knights forced Sage to use the entire shot clock, and Bowman eventually missed a three to give the Knights one last chance. Candarelli got the ball with a chance to beat the buzzer, but her layup attempt was blocked by Jefferson to ice the game.
Tironi paced the Gators with 12 points on the evening, adding nine boards. Jefferson scored 11 and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds for a double-double. Bowman also tallied 11 and dished out a game-leading five assists.
Candarelli completed a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Knights. Delzio led all scorers with 16 points. Scicutella made three shots from beyond the arc to reach 11 points on the evening, added four helpers.
After shooting just 22.2 percent in the first half, the Knights made 14-of-23 (60.9 percent) shots in the second frame to finish the night at 40 percent. Sage shot just 32.8 percent on 20-of-61 shooting. The Gators took advantage of 17 Knight turnovers by turning them into 22 points. Tuesday's contest saw 11 lead changes and seven tie scores.
With the Skyline Conference Championship tournament awaiting them, the Knights still have two games left on their regular-season schedule. They will take on Baruch College on Thursday, Feb. 19, down in New York City in a non-conference matchup, followed by a Saturday afternoon game against St. Joseph's College (L.I.) to close out the regular season. Thursday evening's matchup will tip off at 7 p.m.
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